quantity leads to quality story, Alex update

This story is from the book Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland.

The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality.

His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pound of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot – albeit a perfect one – to get an “A”.

Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work – and learning from their mistakes – the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.

So write, paint, pot, compose, create...no excuses.

UPDATE: Alex saw my blog post and suggested I add this video to my blog. It's sort of like the story above.

Not too much news this week, though next Sunday after church, Glen, Eric, Grandpa P, and Uncles David, Alan, and Gary will place their hands on Alex's head and confer the Melchizedek Priesthood on him and ordain him to the office of an Elder. This is preliminary to him going to the temple and being ready to serve his mission. His mission call will hopefully come this week.

Oh, this morning about 1 1/2 hours before church was to start, Alex was asked to give a short talk at church on prayer. He did a smash up job...basing it on a talk he had recently given. Excellent meeting.

Heather sent us 2 pictures this week. They played the game Alhambra and she said, "Guess who won." I'm going with Andrew losing. 

Lesser items:

The last few days we didn't have to run the swamp cooler and I put the blanket back on our bed. I even had some herbal tea and Pero to warm me up. 

Oh, the speed limit through town is now 30 instead of 25. Big thrill.

Ryan and Angeles moved to a different house in Rexburg, so if you need their new address, let us know.

Alex's mission, Elder Jamieson, Joy

So Alex's mission application papers now stand at "ready to be assigned!" Our Stake President said he couldn't promise anything, but he's guessing that Alex will have his mission call in about 1 1/2 weeks (or whenever the next Apostle is available to make assignments...something like that).

So, we are once again doing the: Guess Where Alex is Going Game. I think I can dig up where everyone guessed a few months ago, but feel free to guess again!

Meanwhile, cousin Thomas, as of this afternoon, is now Elder Thomas Jamieson. He was set apart as a missionary this afternoon and will enter the Missionary Training Center (MTC) this Wednesday. He'll be there for 3 weeks before he heads to the Missouri Independence Mission. SO EXCITING! He asked Kathy to make an airplane cake for him. She also printed off some fun missionary stickers to wrap around Hershey's nuggets.

Pres. Wadsworth, Luke, Elder Jamieson, Gary, Dad P

And, stealing photos from Andrew's blog, here are 2 recent photos of Joy (who will be 2 in 3 months). She's getting so big! What a cutie!